F. Duncan M. Haldane

Interview

Interview with the 2016 Nobel Laureate in Physics F. Duncan M. Haldane on 6 December 2016, during the Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. Interviewer is freelance journalist Torill Kornfeldt.

Nobel Minds 2016

Your browser does not support the video tag.

The 2016 Nobel Laureates gathered for a conversation about research, drive and vision on 11 December 2016. The conversation was filmed at the Grünewald Hall at Stockholm Concert Hall, and was hosted by BBC World’s Zeinab Badawi.

Watch the video

Interview, October 2016

Your browser does not support the video tag.

“It’s very difficult to know whether something is useful or not, but one can know that it’s exciting”

Telephone interview with Duncan Haldane following the announcement of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics, 4 October 2016. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer of Nobel Media.

Transcript of the interview

Duncan Haldane: Hello

Adam Smith: Hello, this is Adam Smith calling from Nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Prize in Stockholm.

DH: Ah ha.

AS: Well, first of all many congratulations on the award.

DH: Thank you.

AS: How did you hear the news?

DH: Well they called me up at the usual 4:30 telephone call, at local time here anyway, in the morning.

AS: Your immediate reaction?

DH: Well I was aware that there was a vague possibility but I didn’t think it would happen.

AS: What did you do after hearing the news, immediately?

DH: Had a cup of coffee. [Laughs] I mean I’m a bit British, or phlegmatic, about these things so I didn’t kind of faint or anything.

AS: Do you think that there’s any significance in the fact that all three of you Laureates were born and initially educated in the UK and then all moved to the States?

DH: I suppose in the late 70s I think there was a bit of a de-emphasis by British funding things on fundamental research as opposed to useful research. I think it is a very bad thing when government agencies start to say… we should never say things like “What’s it used for?” Because all the big discoveries of really useful things don’t really come about because someone sits down and thinks “I want to discover something useful”. They occur because someone discovers something interesting and it turns out to be tremendously useful. I mean that’s the history of everything, in the transistors. The surprise in everything is that quantum mechanics is so much richer than we dreamed. Quantum mechanics is so bizarre! The things it can do, we didn’t discover them earlier because it was just difficult to actually even imagine that quantum mechanics might do these kinds of things. And now we’ve found a whole lot of new topological physics and quantum mechanics and it’s starting to become a big field. Basically, the world is more rich than we … Basically there must be all kinds of things out there that actually happen or can happen but we don’t see them because we haven’t been able to dream that such things are possible, and that was really, probably a surprising effect in all this. It’s very difficult to know whether something is useful or not, but one can know that it’s exciting.

AS: That’s a very important message to deliver. I shouldn’t keep you much longer because I imagine that people are going to be battering down your door any second.

DH: OK, I think I hear somebody else trying to come through on call waiting.

AS: Let me just ask you, will you be coming to Stockholm in December to receive your Prize?

Learn more

This year 12 new laureates have been awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Their work and discoveries range from cancer therapy and laser physics to developing proteins that can solve humankind’s chemical problems. The work of the 2018 Nobel Laureates also included combating war crimes, as well as integrating innovation and climate with economic growth. Find out more.

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.

Select the category or categories you would like to filter by

Select the category or categories you would like to filter by

Physics

Chemistry

Medicine

Literature

Peace

Economic Sciences

Decrease the year by one
Choose a year you would like to search in
Increase the year by one